Poll: Kindergarten
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For the average child, what is the best age to start kindergarten? Age 5 or 6? I am especially looking forward to feedback from teachers and others who are involved or interested in schooling. Thank you!
My son's preschool prefers that children begin actual kindergarten at age six, but Hubby and I don't agree with that. We think that adding an extra year of preschool is a ruse used by certain schools to extract an additional year of tuition from the parents.
Thoughts?
My son's preschool prefers that children begin actual kindergarten at age six, but Hubby and I don't agree with that. We think that adding an extra year of preschool is a ruse used by certain schools to extract an additional year of tuition from the parents.
Thoughts?
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Comments
I think that they should leave it at 5, however if kids are ready earlier or later they should be able to attend...but of course, not attending when they are like 3 or something.
I will be dealing with that problem in a few years with my son. His birthday is the last day of July so he will barely make the cut-off. I'm worried about putting him in too soon. I know that boy's mature slower than girls and I don't want to see him struggle.
I know alot of families in my town that have held some of their sons back till they turn 6, or even close to 7 to give them better odds for football when they get older. That's just crazy. :shock:
Also, most of us put our kids in daycare or preschool anyway, so they may as well be in all-day-kindergarten at age 5! It really bothers me when I see half-day kindergarten programs. After ther kindergarten session most kids are shipped to daycare for the remainder of the day....may as well be in school.
JMO.
My kids are 10 (4thgrade-started preschool at 5yrs6mths) and 5 years old (preschool, missed the township cut off by 7 days, didn't choose to have her evaluated to try to get in that year-when she starts she will be 2 or 3 weeks shy of turning 6)
Intellectually yes they were both ready to start at 5. I had each of them in 2 years of preschool. I am a parent volunteer at the school and do notice a lot of kids who did not attend preschool have a much harder time and quite of few of them do not move on to 1st.
Emotionally....yes for the 10 years old, he was ready to go that first day and has been loving it since. No for the 5 year old. She wasn't quite ready emotionally to have started this year, part of the reason I didn't have her evaluated. She'll be much more prepared for K this coming school year.
So overall 3 outta 4 yes's...I do agree most children are completely ready at 5. Just a few exceptions to the rule like always
That means, in his case: Socially, he wasn't quite ready to get along with other kids yet, he had trouble taking direction from adults in authority without breaking down thinking they hated him, and had anger problems. In his case, he was regularly seeing a child psychologist, and he's definitely a very unusual exception. However, I think milder versions of those problems can happen with some kids at 5, and it not be due to problems from when they were younger.
-Speckla
But at least the pews never attend yoga!
Essentially, can your 5 year-old use the bathroom by him/herself? Does your 5 year-old have the ability to work at tasks independently? Can your 5 year-old follow instructions? Able to sit and attend to his/her work withour constant redirection? Can your 5 year-old express him/herself with language? Can your 5 year-old use a writing tool, such as a crayon?
Is My Child Ready For Kindergarten?
I know in my district, there is a screening in the spring (my son's is Tuesday) and part of the screening is to let parents know if they really think the child is not ready. I think they reserve this more for later birthdays- our cutoff is Dec. 1. Children I have worked with in the past who have been immature with delayed language and social skills have also been recommended to start at 5 on the theory that they really could use 5 days of school with the structure that goes along with that. Also, they are provided additional support (speech, OT, etc) as needed. It's worked out for them, too- my district has a a pre- 1st grade class to avoid having kids repeat kindergarten . This is for kids who are not ready to succeed in 1st grade. The goal is to prepare them for 2nd grade in a smaller, more focused environment.
So yes, most kids are ready at 5. What many aren't ready for intellectually is reading, which seems to be more and more a focus in kindergarten. I think a lot of the push from early childhood people to delay kindergarten until 6 comes from this- that they are not ready for reading and math to be formally introduced until 6, and it is now infiltrating the kindergarten curriculum. Again, this is fine for my kid, but not so fine for the kids I work with... if the school has programs and policies in place to address this, I think it's a good idea to start kids at 5. Otherwise,a younger 5 who's immature may be better off waiting, but you might want to find out of your school has a screening and if they will let you know if your child is not ready.
Edited for typos :oops:
If they skip a grade or are held back a grade, yes. Or if they have a late birthday and are put in school anyway. Most school districts state that a child must be 5 by Sept. 1st of the school year they wish to attend. My brother's birthday is Sept 2. and mine is Sept. 18. We both started at 4 because my mom thought it was a dumb rule.
I voted age 5. Big determining factors to success are (1) social and emotional experience around similar age children-ala daycare, preschool, etc. so they know who to share, play independently, potty solo, etc. (2) parents who encourage structure and learning in their homes (3) parents that support the child going to school at that age.
Regardless of what age a child starts, if the parent is overly anxious and pessimistic about a child starting Kindergarten, the child will most likely have problems adjusting.
Later starting ages for K coming from teachers may also be influenced by the strong pull of achievement testing-they want kids who are more intellectually developed.
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Good for your mum! I've never heard of anyone being kept back a year in England. It might happen, but if it does, it's very rare. Skipping a year is very rare, and if it does occur, it's through birthdays being just into September. There are no hard and fast rules on this though. Some intelligent, mature kids end up being the oldest in their year etc. Bizarrely, I've known of children who have been alternately held back or moved up because the powers that be kept changing their minds on whether to interpret the cut off point strictly or not. They didn't seem to look at the individual child and make a decision. Thanks for the explanation!
But I digress...
I find it interesting that in countries where the children routinely don't start school until they are 6 or 7, they end up doing better at school than children in some countries where they start at 5.
In my opinion, the debate in this thread is just a microcosm of the bigger issue that all children are different and a 'one size fits all' school system doesn't work for many.
DS's school arranges it this way:
A year of preschool (age3) , a year of prekindergarten (age 4), then Early Kindergarten (age 5), Kindergarten (age 6), then first grade (age7)
Our son's birthday is in December and the cutoffs that the school uses is Sept. These age cutoffs are very annoying to us, and I think it should just be done on a case by case basis.
Here's our story: Maybe you could tell us what you think. My son is three with a December birthday. He is emotionally ready for almost anything; it's just his nature to be optimistic and positive. That's been a good thing. Here's what so funny, though: He craves hanging out with the "big boys". During recess, he lingers to play with the big kids and when we take him to gymnastics, he tries to join the big kid classes. He has to repeatedly be put back with the kids his age. I don't know why he's like this, but it can lead to some amusing scenes.
Anyway, at the beginning of school, his teacher showed me a skill sheet showing that DS was 75% ready for prekindergarten. I thought then why is he in preschool and not prekindergarten? The head of school told me that his birthday prevented him from being moved ahead. DH wanted to push, but I was against it because I was concerned that DH's motivation was prestige, which is a bad reason to move a child ahead.
My son came home and told me that many of the children in his class were still babies, and indeed, I thought that they were, as well, with the crying all day, the lack of verbal skills and so forth.
Anyway, the teacher told me that my son was the only child in her room that was using words to handle conflict; the others handle conflict physically. Well, lo and behold, we just had our second conference and I'm told that DS has slid backwards. Nothing has changed at home, so we think it's from the example he's getting from the other children. We also think that he might be bored because I've already taught DS all of the things that he's learned in school, from ASL to counting. Also, he listened to direction and has an unusually long attention span (thanks to no tv.)
I've kept him out of school to spend mother-son time together and on those days, and several days afterward, he behaves beautifully. Then, when he goes back to school, it all falls apart again.
At this point, we're feeling very frustrated. We've learned that all the private schools in this area encourage children to stay in early childhood education a year longer. At this point, I don't know what is best. Now, I feel that I should have supported DH in a push to move our son ahead. I don't want to damage DS in any way. I just want what's best for him.
Any thoughts? I really value your opinions.
I think for the average kid-5 is ideal.
"If you judge people,you have no time to love them"
-Mother Theresa
I have a friend who is from the East coast, and her husband thought their son was basically wasting a year of his life because he has a December birthday and couldn't start until he was nearly 6. They now live in Connecticut, and their daughter, who has a November birthday, actually started kindergarten at 4 (and 10 months), because their cut-off is December 31.
My son has an October birthday, and I think he benefitted from the extra year. That year of preschool when he was 5 was spent sobbing on the floor every time I left him. By the time he started kindergarten, he was able to just enjoy where he was, although it took him another 4 months before he was comfortable with the idea of riding the school bus home with the 6 other half-day kids. This year (first grade), he has no trouble riding both direction with the full bus.
My daughter has a November birthday. She is VERY ready to start kindergarten in the fall,and I think she probably would have done fine starting last fall, but I'm glad she has had this extra year.
My younger son has a July birthday, and right now I can't see any reason why I would hold him back and start him when he's 6. With older siblings, he is just so ready.
It may sound like our mom was a control freak, but that really wasn't it. I can always combine years in highschool, so it's not like I'd be missing out on anything all that important. If I wanted to graduate at a younger age, that is always possible.
Anyway, got a little off track. I don't think that there is really any perfect, average age. Every child develops differently, so there's no textbook definition of when they are ready. Heck, I know a kid that's 14 and in 10th grade. He started kindergarten at age 4...
Sarah
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Presumably, as they get older, because they are a year older than their classroom peers, they will be bigger and more coordinated, and thus better at sports. When colleges recruit, they will be compared to their classmates and look more appealing.
I know that new research is showing that there isn't an advantage to putting kids in K earlier, but I do think it's important to keep a child challenged. I was unhappy this year because his class was studying things that he already knew. If he wasn't so hungry for knowledge, I would think that was fine, but he's constantly asking questions and trying to get me to teach him more concepts.
Sometimes it helps to trust your instinct and not listen to the experts. You know your son better than any expert out there. If you think he needs to be challenged, then you know what you need to do.
This is definitely true.
Kindergarten is mainly "needed" for kids who aren't going to get the reinforcement at home that you've already been providing. So, if you're paying for enrichment, it should be provided at a level that will be stimulating/challenging for your child, not a cookie cutter approach. Dia began at 4 (Nov. 3 birthday), I began at 4 (Feb. 27 birthday), one of my brothers began at 4 (Nov. 29 birthday). We were ready. My other three siblings began at 5. Case by case basis.
Most states don't even require kindergarten, and even then it's typically only required half day. But more are beginning to not because typical kids need it but because parents aren't sending kids to school with the basics anymore, so kindergarten is almost like a remediation grade for the academics portion, and a preparation grade for social interaction, rules, etc.
CC, I don't know if the "good grief" was because you thought I was being negative. If so, that wasn't the case. My first sentence said that I agree with 5 as the general age kids are ready. I was giving you a reason other than money that your child's school might have preschool, junior k, k, etc.
Dia,
Oh no, the "good grief" was about the parents who send thier boys to school late so that they look good to athletic scouts. Sorry about the confusion.
I just found out that several of the kids in my son's class are one to two years older than him, which explains why one of the kids is already reading. Everyone thought he was a three year old genius, but he's actually five! Now, I understand why the school doesn't want to bump my child ahead; they feel that he already is interacting with older children regularly. Interestingly, these older children have been the worst behaved in the classroom.
I am going to meet with the head of school next week and try to sort out our issues. I am not that familiar with the research and the long term effects of keeping a child behind or sending them ahead. I guess I'm just thinking in terms of where he is right now, and I think that's all that I can do.
Thank you all for your feedback! It's been very helpful.
I've seen far more avid readers and advanced readers with children that have picked up reading at their own pace whether at 6 or 10 than kids who were forced to do it at a certain level because the school requires it due to curriculum convenience.
Yes, I'm concerned, too. One child is extremely small and that's why his parents and the administrators chose to keep him back. One child is uncouth because her parents don't discipline her, so the administrators held both she and her brother (at the same school) back so that she could learn social graces, I think. I know that sounds nasty of me, but there don't seem to be signs pointing to a learning delay and I've seen her parents in action. They really don't step in when they need to, in my opinion. I can't figure out what the stories of the other children are, but I have put together a hypothesis.
Based on conversations with other parents, it seems that the school administrators are encouraging all of the children to stay back a year, whenever possible. They've suggested the idea to every parent that I've talked to.
There are two possibilities that I've come up with. One possibility is that they get more tuition out of the parents. Also I've learned that new research points to higher test results in Kindergarten when the children start later. This leads me to believe that maybe they are artificially raising their test scores by delaying entry to each grade. This allows them to charge that high tuition and attract the richer people in the community.
This has been my little detective work for the past two days. There's definitely something going on.
CC,
Your son actually started preschool in the fall at age 2? Turning 3 in Dec?
If you think he is way mature for his current grade, go ahead and advance him. Its not like you don't have the choice of later delaying him when he goes to actual kindergarten. I mean age 5 kindergarten not the artificial one your school creates.
It does sound like that school is pulling some funny business there. I have never heard of a prekindergarten at age 5. This way they can get a extra full year of tuition from everyone. Lovely. :roll:
My son started preschool in the fall at 3 years 5 months. I thought he was ready because he is VERY EAGER to learn anything that has to do with colors, numbers. He could recognize most letters and numbers by 24 months. I was wrong though.
Emotionally, he was not ready at all. He would constantly climb on other kids and run around circle time. Part of his problem is that his RECEPTIVE language is delayed. The teachers don't seem to understand this because they can understand what he says ( his expressive language is not) . They complain that he "doesn't listen".
For now I am going to work with a therapist on his receptive language and keep him out of school. I will worry about preschool again in the fall. Hopefully he will listen /behave better.